Mermaid Makes Two
by leodranz
Summary: On a class trip Soul ventures off on his own to complete the assignment he's been given. Only when he drops his book in a tide pool he isn't prepared for the luminous green eyes of a predator, between that and her bite he's pretty sure he's in trouble. But things take a weird turn when she asks him for a favor. A two part story.


He hated field trips. More than anything else.

Being crammed in a tiny bus with other young adults all shouting and screaming, talking about who partied with who and getting hammered. It was why he'd tried every ploy he could think of to get out of this 'beach research' project.

Unfortunately the Marine Bio Professor was terrifying and somehow managed to counter every excuse Soul could come up with. "Mr. Evans..." With a glare behind his crooked glasses, Professor Stein was enough to make any student tremble with fear. "I seem to remember your last 'absence' was involving a trip to the store and a restaurant." And red faced, Soul had been forced to back down about wanting to skip. But Stein had connections and wouldn't hesitate to make Soul regret it.

So here he was, on an old bus that creaked as they drove along. Luckily he'd crammed himself into the back corner with another quieter student, the purple hair barely visible as the black hoodie and loose pants swallowed them. Honestly Soul wasn't sure if the student was a boy or a girl, they barely spoke normally in general. Headphones in and staring blankly out the window, it had been a fairly uneventful ride besides the shouting of his classmates that he'd occasionally get clips of over his music.

Clicking violently as they finally reached their destination all of them were forced to unload. Young adults pouring onto the beach and fawning over the scenery. Slipping his headphones off, Soul let the chunky beats stay around his neck, if nothing else at least he'd have background music. But he decided to wait until their 'intro' was finished since the teacher was rounding everyone up. More than one beach ball had been confiscated in less than two minutes.

"All right everyone, you have your notes and worksheets, be sure to record anything of interest and fill out your assignment to the letter. Anyone who doesn't complete this assignment will be dismissed from my class immediately." Stein had lectured. Soul grumpily touched the notebook in his messenger bag, dressed in a thin shirt and shorts, it was still mind numbingly hot. "Now you can partner, group, or do this as an individual task but your worksheets will be graded on your performance." The look he gave the class clown was very pointed. Soul almost felt bad for Black Star, but in truth the guy did rely on his girlfriend to do most of the work.

Chuckling at all the attention he was getting Black Star threw an arm around his girlfriend. "I can't help it that I'm such a big star. I don't have time for all of this silly homework." His girlfriend looked embarrassed but still smiled sweetly at him. Soul knew that there was more to their relationship than people thought, but at times like this it was hard not to feel sorry for Tsubaki.

Looming over them, Stein looked between the two and sighed. "Be that as it may Black Star, but should you want to go to that tournament next week I would suggest you pass my class. Which is hard to do if I fail you for not participating." With a meaningful swipe of his pen over his clipboard Stein smiled. "I would hate to ruin that perfect record you hold." For once Black Star looked quelled, though it didn't seem that he was happy about it.

With that they were dismissed, to go find marine life and observe. Supposedly the tide pools would be crawling with life that they just 'had' to see. Rolling his eyes Soul set off on a trek across the sand over to where the larger tides were. Some of the rocks were hard to climb meaning that less people would be inclined to spend their time there; instead going for the more shallow ones. Only the super studious nerds would try and they weren't usually in that great of shape to get too far.

Turning up his music Soul found himself actually enjoying the sunshine and the exercise, it was a bit refreshing to be out of the city. Salty air blowing all around him, the sound of the waves mixing with music to create a very soothing rhythm. His arms burned with the use of them as he climbed higher and further in, ducking under stone arches from nature. When he finally found a slope downward he took it, figuring that he should probably spend some time actually doing his work.

Seagulls flew over him and Soul watched carefully to make sure that nothing dropped on him. That was the last thing he'd need.

Behind him he could hear the loud mouth of Black Star and Patti shouting about the heat and possibly diving into the ocean from one of the peaks. Those two would never learn.

From the path he saw a larger tide pool and figured now was the best time to actually do his assignment, no one else was around and with the music playing on his headphones he almost felt relaxed. Though at the moment he was extremely glad for his sneakers as he skidded forward a few steps, the path he'd picked was a bit more treacherous than he'd originally thought. Gripping onto a rock he hissed as he sliced his hand open cleanly. Well hell.

His bag fell and his stuff scattered below him near the water, Soul could scream in frustration. Now he had to finish getting down there. Using as much caution as possible he did his best not to cause any further injury to himself. Luckily he made it without further incident.

Now for the search for his bag.

Edging towards the pool he found a few of his notes scattered, one piece of paper had sadly gone down to blanket one poor starfish. But most of his stuff seemed to be intact. Wait, where was his book? If he lost that textbook it would be the end of him! Stein would brutally murder him and tell his parents it had been a tragic accident. The man was crazy enough.

He'd been so engrossed with stressing that he hadn't noticed the pair of green eyes watching him.

Cursing as he found the textbook floating in the middle of the pool Soul slipped off his shoes and stepped very carefully around the sea life that was thriving in the small oasis. "Of all the..." Did books dry in perfect condition that would get him his deposit back? This book had not been cheap. Groaning he fished it out, the water was nearly up to his mid thigh, at least it was warm enough that he'd probably dry out before he had to get back on the bus.

The pages were soggy and he groaned in despair as he realized that he was never going to be able to return this back to the school. Stein was going to flay him for this and then hang his skeleton up for lectures.

His blood from his palm had smeared over the pages and was dripping into the small tide pool. Damn, the cut had been deeper than he'd thought. "Oh Come on!" He growled, how could this get any worse? And then he felt sharp jaws circle around his calf. "Hell!"

Whipping around he saw the pale, glimmering scales of a tail. Shining a pale mint green and reflecting luminous pale blues and a hint of pink, it was gorgeous, with sheer fins that Soul thought would rip if you touched them. She reared back and gnashed her teeth at him, wheat blonde pigtails thrashing in the wind. Her irises matched her lovely scales, but the murderous look in those eyes made him feel like he was shark bait.

The top half was a girl, she looked about his age physically but with gills and her skin had a blue undertone. Pearls and precious stones dripped from a headdress and necklace, and gold bands encircled her upper arms and curled up over her shoulders. Then there were the weird markings, he wasn't sure if it was a tattoo or her natural skin tone; mint green intricate designs covered some of her ribs and flowed with the natural curve of her body along her arms and back.

A mermaid. A real life mermaid; that wanted to eat him. Hissing, she made this weird sort of clicking noise mixed with a snarl. "Hey now, why don't you just chill out?" Slowly edging backwards he debated his chances on being able to make it out of the tide pool before she went piranha on him.

Lunging forward she wrapped her tail around him and he fell back into the water with her, those luminous eyes staring into his soul as she took him down. Small fish and starfish swam at the edges of his vision. Opening her mouth she let out a harsh snarl and then she kissed him.

Eyes wide all the breath left his lungs and he flailed about trying to break free from her, bubbles surrounded him and her grip tightened. "Breathe." He wasn't sure how he heard it, wasn't sure where the voice came from but suddenly his lungs filled up with air and he could see.

The mermaid hovered above him, a perplexed look on her face as she pursed her lips and her brows creased. "You taste funny." Despite being under water he could hear the grumble, the soft way her voice changed.

"Yeah? Well maybe if you didn't try to eat people you wouldn't have that problem." Narrowing a glare at her he curled his lip and thrashed about, for such a tiny looking girl she was obnoxiously steady in her hold. Her fins floated around them like a curtain giving Soul a feeling like he was dreaming.

Sticking her tongue out she rolled her eyes at him before crossing her arms. "That's what we do! Or at least that's what all the stories say..." Again her brows creased and Soul couldn't help but think she was a bit cute when she did that. Clearly he'd hit his head if he thought a mythical being that wanted to eat him was attractive.

Rearranging she pulled him up and further into a small cavern that realistically should not have been there. She uncoiled around him and sat him on a rock before perching on her own, her long tail swishing in an unconscious motion. "I've never heard about anyone getting eaten by a mermaid." He ran his hand through the water, there was a bit more resistance but it seemed unnaturally easy for him to move. His clothing floated around him in a typical fashion and he was well aware that his hair was probably a hot mess without his hair gel.

"I've never really met a human, but my papa says that they were good raw but too tough when cooked. My boyfriend thinks he's full of it though." She shrugged, the way she bit down on her lip make him think that there was more to the story than she was letting on. "When I got stuck here and I saw you I thought you might be a good dish to try." Was she calling him her version of sushi?

Soul crossed his arms and watched her, she kept fidgeting and sweeping her tail from side to side till her fins nearly touched him. They sat in silence for a few moments, Soul observing the strange world that he'd been pulled into. A few fish would dart around her, one even nuzzled her tail before slowly swimming up to him and investigating him before returning back to the tide pool above. "So what am I doing down here?" It seemed as good a statement as any to start off with.

Jerking up she looked at him, blinking rapidly before giving him a sad smile. "Oh. You remind me of him is all. I haven't been able to find him for a few moon cycles now, it's how I ended up stuck here. This is one of his favorite hideaways." She fiddled with a string of red jewels that hung around her neck, it was clear that she was fond of it. "I was going to eat you, but you have the same eyes." The gems were the same color as his eyes, and if she was telling the truth then they were the same colors as her boyfriend's eyes.

"So your boyfriend...what exactly...is he?" Soul couldn't help but picture The Little Mermaid and a singing cartoon man. Or maybe he was part octopus like Ursula.

Giggling she grinned at him, her teeth were double rows of sharp teeth. No wonder his leg hurt like hell. "Oh, he's a bit surly but he's half shark so it's understandable. Normally he's kind of a loner, lurking on the sidelines. It's funny..." She squinted at him and tilted her head. "You could be his twin really, except for those weird fins you have. His fin is much more suitable." Nodding to herself she sighed and floated upwards to swim around a bit, it was almost like she was stretching out her tail. How strange.

His head was spinning with all of this information, he wasn't sure why or what was going on really. He had a mer-shark doppelganger. One who was missing. The way she looked at him sent a small pain through his chest, he felt bad for her. But how the hell was he supposed to find a shark man? He couldn't even save his text book from drowning.

The mermaid yawned before sinking down to the floor, again the fins were nearly see through as he could make out her shape from behind them. "And what am I supposed to do to help you?" He didn't mean to be brash, but he was getting a bit restless not knowing when he would return to the surface. His book was destroyed and there was no telling how pissed Stein would be if he went missing; hell his parents would ground him for a millennium.

Cracking her neck she rolled her head to stare at him unblinkingly. "Hmmm? Oh, I can fix your weird thing you dropped. But only if I can use you for a spell."

Shivers traveled all along his body as he wondered just what she had in mind, by the look in those luminous eyes he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Flicking her tail she yawned before swimming upright, stretching and rolling her shoulders. It was still a bit disorienting how human she could be, at least until he watched her catch a fish in her mouth and down it in one gulp. Then he just felt sick for a different reason. "Now that I'm fed, shall we get started? It seems luck put us together for a reason, I get my boyfriend and you get a fixed weird thing."

Soul couldn't help but note as she grinned and swam around him, that his book wouldn't have been ruined if not for her most likely. But he was in enough trouble at school and would take what he could get. "You're not going to kill me right?" All she did in response was laugh. It really didn't make him feel better.


End file.
